Cats on Glass

This piece of art glass by Joan Baker Designs was my Christmas present from Ken. It measures 10.5 inches by 37.5 inches and is framed in metal with a chain for hanging. It's called "Whimsical Cats" !

Ken got it for me from Darlene's store, Cats Unlimited, here in Bedford, Texas. You might have seen Darlene at cat shows around the country, selling quality cat paraphenalia. When a cat show is over, both we and Darlene have much to do to get packed up and loaded into our vehicles. This is a process that takes us all several hours so it's either Darlene out last or Ken and me. Ken and I kinda judge our progress by Darlene's progress. :)

If you want to see some of these items in person at Cats Unlimited in Bedford, I have contact information in another post: http://helmiflick.blogspot.com/2009/08/joan-baker-designs-at-cats-unlimited.html

Neither Ken nor I decorate our house with cat things so this piece is the exception to the rule. We prefer the cats themselves to be what catches our eye ... but this piece of art is like a stained glass window with four colorful heavy-lidded cats in various poses. As I sit at my email computer in my studio (I have my image computer in another room entirely), I can look out onto our "patio" area below this piece of glass and see the squirrels and cardinals, woodpeckers, doves and little chickadees eating black oil sunflower seeds and wild bird seed. So it's perfect: adds color to the room but doesn't obscure my peeking out at the wildlife.

Here is a long shot of what the piece looks like in the studio. You can see the chain at the top. You can also see Quin, our Black Smoke Maine Coon, napping on the sheepskin covering a footstool below the stained glass and a tiny bit of Zak, our Blue and White Maine Coon is napping on my desk in the foreground at right. Sky, our Blue British Shorthair is part of my desktop screen saver so the only one not present is Nox, our Black British Shorthair, who prefers sleeping in the living room or atop my dressing area.

The pyramid shaped orange thing in the middle of the photo is the top part of a salt lamp that Sassia and Rick Hollenberg gave us when we stayed with them after doing a CFA Show in Phoenix some years ago. It looks like a "whatzit" (read: what is that?) floating on top of my monitor but it actually is sitting on top of my PC tower computer located behind my monitor, constantly emitting an aura of ... what exactly was that supposed to do, Sassia? Good luck? Productivity enhancements? Anyway, whatever it does, I like it and feel good about it!

I am pleased with the placement of the stained glass. I can see it every day, it's not intrusive but makes me smile when I see the light shining through, and we don't use these doors anyway.

A wonderful gift of humorous graphic cats that brightens my day.

Coat Colors, Backgrounds and an Oriental Shorthair

Oyate Charleston Harbor "Charlie," 7 month old Cinnamon Oriental Shorthair Male,

photographed on our New Green Felt background.

Breeder: Cindy Crenshaw/R Fulkerson; Owner: Paula Mortimore.

Oyate Charleston Harbor "Charlie," 7 mo old Cinnamon Oriental Shorthair Male,

photographed on our Magenta background.

Breeder: Cindy Crenshaw/R Fulkerson; Owner: Paula Mortimore.

We photographed Charlie at TICA's 2009 Southeast Regional Awards Banquet and Cat Show, held in Raleigh, North Carolina. I believe that Charlie is the first Solid Cinnamon shorthair I've ever photographed. There is such a richness to his coat color that I had to post his photo. His owner, Paula, gave me carte blanche with background colors so I first chose Magenta. I thought it would bring out the green of his eyes and be a dynamite swirl of colors with hot pink, dark orange of his coat and the eye color. I told Paula it would be a bit outre' but sweetheart that she is, she agreed.

Charlie, on the other hand, was spooked on Saturday and didn't want to sit up or stand for the sitting. Paula was disappointed, and I was, too. On Sunday, Paula came over before the show started and told me Charlie was so much better, playing in the hotel room and at ease in the showhall, could we shoot him again? We did, but using a new green background we were bringing out for the first time at this show. The green is a more traditional background for this coat color.

So here you can see, above, the difference in the look of the cat on two different backgrounds. At the top is our New Green Felt and below that is our Magenta. But whatever background a cat is shot against, the important thing is that the cat is comfortable, trusting and having a good time -- that's what makes a good photo shoot. These are two of the 22 images I submitted yesterday for consideration to Cat Fancy for the Oriental Shorthair. This breed profile will be published in May of 2010. Hopefully, I will get an image or two published.

Backgrounds for Charlie: at top - New Green Felt; below - Magenta

A Texas White Christmas!!!

I know that snow is pretty normal in other parts of the country but to us, in Texas, it's a once-a-year thing, if we're lucky. And usually, not this much snow! I used a flash to catch the snowflakes and then layered the image to decrease the overexposure in the foreground. It's a magical thing and I've never experienced a White Christmas in Texas since coming here in 1992!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!



P.S. I heard on the weather channel here that the last time it snowed for Christmas in Dallas was 1926!

Surprise Visit

We were briefly visited by a young Hawk this Christmas Eve afternoon! By the time I came back with my big camera, he was gone.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Flick Cats, left to right:

CH Earendil Nox "Nox," Solid Black British Shorthair Neuter;

Coonalley Eggzaklee Mr Happy Tail "Zak," Blue and White Maine Coon Neuter;

Coonalley Quintus Magnus Gravitas "Quin," Black Smoke Maine Coon Neuter; and

RW SGCA & GP Earendil Sky "Sky," Solid Blue British Shorthair Spay.

This image was created in 2004 for our New Year's Card (we didn't make it in time for Christmas that year). The Brits were 7 years old and the Coons were 3 years old. Not telling you all how old Ken and I were!

Whatever your family celebrates this holiday season, we wish for all of you a healthy 2010, that your dreams are in the process of coming true, and that you are surrounded by those you love.

Ken and Helmi
Nox, Sky, Zak & Quin

Background for this shot: Paprika

WANTED: Rare Breeds

Click on the poster to see an enlarged version! Ken made up this poster for me as we recently have been asked by publishers to supply ALL the breeds ... and I'm missing some or only have two examples of the breed in other cases. However, I did get two more Napoleons at the Corpus Christi TIFS show a week ago (thanks, Lonnie and Dawn Lott!).

If you have one of these breeds I'm missing, please check my show calendar (click on "Calendar" at the right) to see if we'll be at a show near you. Then email me and I'll get approval from the Show Manager and send you a sign up form.

High Key Christmas Card Attempt

This is a high key image of a white Persian on a white background, used for the cover of KOT magazine, a cat magazine in Poland, for their April issue in 2008.

I first heard about "high key" from other photographers ... loosely meaning that the image's midtones are high on the exposure scale, or bright and white. To me, high key images look very elegant. Therefore, I wanted to make a Christmas Card in 2002 that used whites, pale blues, silvers and lilacs to showcase our cats. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that having two essentially black cats would not be in keeping with "high key" ... live and learn. So the above was the result.

After Ken and I shot this (it took days to create the set and then shoot, with a tripod, the cats, two by two), I decided to stick to the more saturated and low key looks that we're known for.

Background: we used white background paper for this shot.